SARB Begins Phasing Out PASA in Major Payments System Overhaul
The South African Reserve Bank has begun the process of phasing out the Payments Association of South Africa, restructuring the governance architecture of the country's payments system. The move represents a significant structural shift for fintech operators and payment service providers operating under the existing PASA framework.
SARB's PASA Move: South Africa just took self-regulation off the table
For nearly thirty years, South Africa's payment system ran on a self-regulatory model — banks and payment providers, through PASA, essentially governing themselves under a light central-bank blessing.
That era ends on 2 September. The SARB is pulling regulatory authority in-house, including card interoperability and risk oversight — the rules that decide who plugs into the national payment system and on what terms.
For fintech operators, this is the structural question underneath the transition: self-regulatory bodies, whatever their flaws, tend to be permeable. Central banks, by design, are not. Whether SARB uses this direct authority to open the system wider or to hold it tighter is the thing worth watching.
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- South Africa’s central bank begins phasing out PASA in payments system overhaul · thecondia.com · T2